Fluorinated carbon compounds can be made by reacting HF with a chlorinated hydrocarbon in the presence of any known suitable catalyst, e.g., SbCl.sub.5 and SbCl.sub.3 or chromium oxide. The final reaction mixture contains fluoro-organic compounds, chlorofluoro-organic compounds, unreacted chloro-organic compounds, HCl and unreacted HF.
Prior separations of the HF from such mixtures involved the formation of an organic and an inorganic layer and separation of the layers. The organic layer still contains an appreciable amount of HF which is removed by scrubbing with water and then neutralizing with an alkali. The prior procedures are described in greater detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,450,414, 2,450,415 and 2,478,362. The processes are both wasteful of HF and have the added disadvantage of creating serious disposal problem of toxic fluorides, since recovery from dilute solution is both difficult and expensive.